Highly Commended Award, European Management Journal Best Paper Awards 2026

Each year the European Management Journal selects a small number of papers from the past volume for its Best Paper Awards. From volume 44 (2026), the editors selected our article Change or stability? A meta-analysis of organizational responses to social and historical performance feedback for the Highly Commended Award. I wrote the paper with Pursey Heugens and Anna Nadolska.

The article brings together 74 studies on performance feedback and shows that organizations respond differently to the two kinds of shortfall. Falling short of their own past performance pushes firms towards strategic change. Falling short of their peers leads to stability, as firms invest more in R&D instead.

What the editors wrote

The senior and associate editors who nominated the paper explained their choice as follows.

This paper provides a sharper and more useful answer than simply saying poor performance makes firms change. It gives researchers a clearer theory to build on and managers a better way to read their own results.

This paper’s main strength is that it does more than summarise previous research. It uses existing evidence to refine an established theoretical model, which gives the study strong potential to influence future research on organisational performance feedback and strategic decision-making.

First and foremost, I am impressed by the contribution to theory through the integration of performance feedback and regulatory focus theories that enhance our understanding of when and how organizations respond to performance shortfalls. I also think that the paper presents a well-designed and rigorously conducted empirical study. It is well written and can be easily followed by scholars outside the strategy and organizational decision-making domains.